This holiday may present challenges to our budgets, but it shouldn't present any barriers to staying in touch. With the economy faltering, many Americans are turning to the true meaning of the holidays--family, friends, and togetherness.

And with technology advancing a mile a millisecond, there's no reason not to connect--even if you can't afford the cross-country trip to grandma's this year. Here are some of the best tech tools for staying in touch.

Talk online
Programs like Skype and Apple's iChat allow far-flung family members to talk over long distances without phone fees, and also allow you to add video so you can see one another as well.

Bill Seaver, founder and CEO of MicroExplosion Media, adds, "www.ooVoo.com is one of my personal favorites. It allows you to talk via browser to people who haven't downloaded ooVoo. You can have up to three people talking for their free version, and up to six if you're willing to pay $10/month...it’s a great option for the holidays to get family all over the world together for a while."

Create mailing lists for family & friends
While many e-mail programs that come with your computer can create mailing lists that send e-mail out to groups, "keeping information via Plaxo and LinkedIn is very simple and very easy to do---with some great benefits," advises Guinn. "If your computer crashes, Plaxo will reload every email address that was in your computer and help you recreate your notebook."

Twitter and other micro-blogging utilities
Twitter is a website that posts your latest thoughts and messages for all your friends to see, and sends those posts to your friends' mobile devices as well (if they elect to receive mobile updates). You can post to Twitter from the web, from a cell phone, or from a mobile device.

"Twitter has taken the place of chat rooms and even instant messaging for many people," explains Scott Allen, coauthor of The Virtual Handshake (http://TheVirtualHandshake.com) and The Emergence of the Relationship Economy (http://snipurl.com/relationshipeconomy). Allen also recommends Pownce, a Twitter-like application, for sending pictures, messages, links, files and event invites.

Social networking
We all know about Myspace and Facebook, but now some websites allow you to set up a private social network for the family.

"There are a few options that are focused specifically on families, such as Famster.com or TheFamilyPost.com, but frankly, I’d just recommend using something like www.Ning.com.  It’s free, easy to use, widely used and very flexible. You can easily set the whole network to private or have a mix of private and public areas," Allen said.

Online gaming
New game systems like Nintendo's popular Wii, the Xbox 360, and the Sony Playstation all allow you to connect to the Internet and play online with anyone, anywhere.

"X-Box Live allows people to stay connected," says Seaver. "My sons use it to stay connected to their cousins and uncles in another state."

Games like the soon-to-be-released Rock Band: World Tour allow different family members in different geographic locations to all play in the same band, bringing the whole family together for holiday fun like never before.